Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/369

Rh e.g. Bayreuth, Russia, Paris, London, even America! A specially common tale in Silesia. But the White Lady of the Vítkovec families was not only a messenger of death and misfortune, but also appeared on joyous events. Balbín says she only brought bad news when she had a black glove. Various versions make her a punisher of ill-doers and a protector of the poor. In most of these stories she is the ancestress of the family, but in others she is one who is suffering for her sins in some way or other, including that of opposing parental authority.

8. The White Lady in places of unlucky events, such as murders, suicides, accidents. Here the idea of the White Lady is merely the declaration of the popular religious idea as to the life after death and of the punishment which pursues the soul in that it does not find rest. Various examples are quoted from collections such as Krolmus, A. BlažkaBlažek [sic], etc.

III. Expositions of the story of the White Lady.

In this matter the most important story is that of the Vítkovec White Lady, and this has received continuous attention from Chanovský to the present day. According to him (ob. 1643) it was the spirit of Bertha von Schwamberg, wife of a lord of Rosenberg. His explanation is invalid, as history knows no such lady.

Next comes Balbín, who devoted much labour to the matter, collecting all the details of the story and variants, and trying to establish a standard version. He regards her as the benefactor, the ancestral spirit watching over the safety of the family. He proves this by the foundation of the sweet pap and the appearance at Pelčí in 1645, when the Swedes refused to give it. He conjectures that she is Bertha von Rosenberg. His main evidence is a picture in the castle at Neuhaus labelled Bertha. He gives a full description of the annual popular feast known as the "sweet pap."

This theory had such success that efforts were made to connect Bertha with the appearances in Germany through the family alliances with Baden, etc. Erasmus Francisci, Der Hollische Proteus, 1708, was the first to do this. Nagel gathered up all this in a dissertation, Wittenberg, 1743. Balbín is the source of all the stories even in the Calendar of Documents of the Telč estate.

Minutoli's book gave evidence that the White Lady had appeared